1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of hand grips and more particularly to handles for carrying bags.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The invention of a hand grip for carrying a sack or bag is nearly as ancient as the invention of the bag itself. The one probably soon followed the other. Balanced shoulder yokes, for example, contoured or resting across the shoulders of the carrier and carrying nearly equal weighted bags or sacks at each extremity of the yoke, are well recognized and ancient devices to assist in manual transport of bags and sacks around the world.
With the advent of inexpensive, light and high strength plastics, many retailers, including grocers in particular, have switched to plastic bags. Such plastic bags typically include a bag pouch or body which integrally extends to form a pair of straps defining a hand grip. Users may thus load the bag and securely grasp the bag through the hand straps, carrying anywhere from one to four bags with a single hand.
However, the heavy weight of items or groceries in such plastic bags causes the hand straps to collapse and take on the nature of thin ropes. The concentration of weight from the bag through the thinly folded hand strap quickly fatigues the normal user, and provides a hand grip varying from uncomfortable to painful.
To avoid such inconvenience, the prior art has devised designs for plastic bags which have included riveted plastic reinforcements along the top of the hand strap. These have assisted in reducing discomfort, but serve to increase the weight and cost of the bag and are often subject to detachment from the bag due to failure of the adhesive or riveting which attaches the rigid plastic handle to the flexible bag material.
Such plastic integral hand grips, however, often are difficult to handle because the grips on each side of the bag tend to detach one from each other and become splayed due to the load in the bag which tends to separate or open the bag top. Furthermore, if the user should attempt to carry more than the one such bag equipped with rigid handle reinforcements, the plurality of rigid handle segments becomes difficult to grasp in a single hand and in truth are little more comfortable than handling the bags without such reinforcements.
Flexible hand grips for carrying loads, and in particular coiled electrical cords, are shown by Farnworth, "Handle," U.S. Pat. No. 4,558,896 (1985). Such handles, however, are fabricated from semiflexible plastic and require that a strap portion be folded back without breaking over the carried article and locked into a slot in order to define a carrying loop. The required flexibility of the material dictated a certain thinness in the load carrying strap portion and hence a limitation in its strength. To the extent that the material was not highly flexible, the end of the strap tended to flip out of its locking slot, particularly if the handle was not heavily loaded. The handle also required a certain amount of manipulation to fold it over and lock the strap portion about the carried article, which manipulation discouraged its use.
Other types of handgrips include various types of common meat hooks, ice tongs and hooks, and grips for handling hay bales. While such devices could conceivably be used to hook and carry anything, none are particularly suited for use by consumers with grocery bags and therefore have been rejected by consumers for this purpose.
Therefore, what is needed is some type of hand grip which can be inexpensively manufactured, but which provides a secure comfortable grip without regard to the number of bags carried and substantially independent of the weight in the bags.